Classic-Horror.com | Reviewing the History of Horror Movies

Our editor-in-chief Nate Yapp is proud to have contributed to the new book Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks, edited by Aaron Christensen. Another contributors include Anthony Timpone, B.J. Colangelo, Dave Alexander, Classic-Horror.com's own Robert C. Ring and John W. Bowen. Pick up a copy today from Amazon.com!

William Finley (1942 - 2012)

Submitted by Matt Majeski on Sun, 2012-04-15 17:29

If I don't hear about any horror fan screaming out into the night at this sad and grim news, then I will truly be surprised! I know there's a few tears in my eyes already. It appears that William Finley, beloved character actor, passed away on April 14^th, 2012 due to complications after surgery.

Finley was mainly known for his collaborative efforts with noted director Brian De Palma, whose film credits with him include The Wedding Party, Dionysus, Sisters, and of course, Phantom of the Paradise. Finley was also known for his working relationship with horror film director Tobe Hooper as well, starring in Eaten Alive, The Funhouse and Night Terrors. He also starred in Wise Blood alongside Brad Douriff and wrote the script for The First Time. According to IMDB, his last known role was George Tilden in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia.(read more...)

Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

Submitted by John Dubrawa on Fri, 2012-04-13 15:05

Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13^thopenly defies originality, borrowing liberally from John Carpenter's Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, but succeeds in spite of it. Although far from being the paradigm of the genre, the film nevertheless paves a succinct pathway through its boogeyman tale, striking a few familiar notes of its predecessors while creating its own unique beats along the way. It's a slasher flick stripped down to its most primal vices-sex and violence-and Friday the 13th unflinchingly bathes the audience in copious amounts of both. (read more...)

Review: The Ninth Gate (1999)

Submitted by Jose Cruz on Tue, 2012-04-03 02:17

Having conjured up a vision from Hell in a New York brownstone apartment house some thirty years previously, director Roman Polanski returned to the diabolical fold with this, a loose adaptation of the novel El Club Dumas by Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte. And although the quiet, precise trappings of the filmmaker's work remain intact in this old curiosity, it is ultimately a film less interested in heralding the coming of the Devil than one that sees fit to tell us that he's been here the entire time.

Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a reptilian book dealer who cheats unwitting people out of antiquated volumes worth thousands with as much ease as lighting up one of his ever-handy cigarettes. There is no passion or sense of duty in his task, only reward and gain. That's what makes him an ideal candidate for the imposing collector Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), a grave eccentric who owns a library of ancient texts based solely around Satan. (read more...)

The End is Near

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2012-03-16 22:17

This is not the easiest article I've ever had to write. On June 15th, 2012, the site's 13th birthday, Classic-Horror.com will cease updating. We will continue publishing biweekly reviews up until that point (on Fridays instead of our usual Mondays), but after that, the site will remain up only as an archive.

There are a number of reasons for the site coming to a close in three months, but none of them are particularly important. Basically, it's time to move on. Thirteen years is a good run.

I wanted to give a little warning rather than cease out of nowhere, because I want to point out that we will have some incredible reviews from our staff, who are some of the best writers I have ever known. We're going to go out on some of our strongest material.

There will be another post on June 15th, a final farewell post, where I talk about more about the closure. This post is just a friendly notice that the end of the book is drawing near.

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Review: Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Quatermass and the Pit (Five Million Years to Earth) poster

Submitted by Simon Powell on Fri, 2012-03-16 15:45

The late Nigel Kneale was a visionary and ground breaking writer whose 1950s BBC TV Quatermass serials were not only a massive influence on the likes of Doctor Who and The X-Files, and a big hit with the public, but also one of the first attempts to write dark and scary small screen sci-fi aimed purely at adults rather than children. These were all subsequently remade for the big screen by Hammer Studios, and with Optimum Releasing recently bringing out a freshly remastered Blu-ray disc of the third and final story, Quatermass and the Pit, the time is ripe for a fresh look at a film that has aged very well. Director Roy Ward Baker takes a highly imaginative, ideas-packed script and a strong, charismatic lead character and presents a chilling picture of mob mentality, racism, and mankind's violent tendencies.(read more...)

Review: Sisters (1973)

Submitted by Rich Dishman on Fri, 2012-03-02 14:40

Sisters is a pulpy, Hitchcockian first excursion into the subjects of voyeurism and sexual horror by then unknown director Brian DePalma. Released midway through the period (1968 - 1978) that I consider to be the golden age of the modern American horror film, it does not share the rarified air of classics like Night of the Living Dead or Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But Sisters has enough of its own creative juice to make it very much worth a look.(read more...)

"Night of the Living Dead" Chapel Close to Resurrection

Submitted by Matt Majeski on Fri, 2012-03-02 14:27

In 1967, an upcoming, unknown film director named George A. Romero set out to make a movie with his production company Image Ten and a group of unknown actors and actresses in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. That film in question was none other than Night of the Living Dead! Filmed in more than 4 weeks and shot on a minimal budget of $114,000, Night shocked audiences when it first premiered on October 1^st, 1968, and still does so to this day. The film also managed to pave the way for independent filmmakers, along with bringing horror closer to the real world.

One of the most prominent locations where the movie was shot was Evans City Cemetery, located 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. The cemetery has been a host to several NOTLD fans ever since the film broke through the barriers of pop culture, and it still stands as one of the few locations left of the film.(read more...)

Dwight Frye

Submitted by Matt Majeski on Thu, 2012-02-23 00:14

Horror film actors are probably the most typecast actors ever, whether it brings them great success (Lon Chaney Sr., Boris Karloff, etc) or it brings them great failure (Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., etc) in their lifetimes. But no matter if they're top billed or uncredited in a minor cameo, they always seem to put forth 120% into their performances. That was very much the case for Dwight Frye, one of the most typecast actors in all of horror film history. He gained his claim to fame in the early talkies as Renfield, the crazed, insect eating madman in Tod Browning's Dracula. After this success for Universal, Frye would be catapulted into playing a whole bunch of lunatics, half wits, spies and red herrings, all which led him into a deep frustration.

Bill Hinzman (1936 - 2012)

Submitted by Matt Majeski on Sun, 2012-02-05 23:21

Sad news has struck every horror film fan around the world today.

It turns out that Bill Hinzman, who played the cemetery zombie in Night of the Living Dead, and who was forever etched into zombie pop culture, died at age 75 from cancer.

Hinzman was also known for his other collaborative efforts with George Romero, on films like There's Always Vanilla, Hungry Wives, The Crazies and O.J. Simpson: Juice on the Loose. He finally broke out into writing and directing, making the low budget zombie film Flesh Eater in 1988 (which he also starred as the main zombie). His last film role according to IMDb was Harvey Hix in River of Darkness.(read more...)

Review: The Last Man on Earth (1964)

Submitted by Padraig Cotter on Mon, 2012-01-16 23:10

The Last Man on Earth is the first cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson's classic novel I Am Legend. With its unique premise and intelligent deconstruction of the vampire myth, Matheson's book brought something fresh and exciting to the horror genre (Stephen King, Steve Niles and George Romero, amongst many others, have cited it as a big inspiration on them). But how well does this film version compare to the novel that inspired it? The answer, unfortunately, is not very. (read more...)